Incessant conflict between farmers and Fulani herdsmen across the country is affecting the security of communities. These conflicts have led to the destruction of land and water resources as the hooves of cattle trample on them. The destruction of crops by the herdsmen continues to place restraint on effective utilisation of arable farmland, reports BODE DUROJAIYE.
Unless the Federal Government urgently addresses incessant encroachment of farmlands by a group called Bororo cattle rearers, and the havoc they wreak on crops, bloody clashes between the farmers and the intinerant herdsmen would be inevitable.
In Oyo State, villagers from about eight villages, and settlers from Ilora farm settlement in the Afijio Local Government Area of the state have already declared total war on the cattle rearers. The affected villages include Oluwatedo, Temi-dire, Idode, Kaye, Fitila, Isale-Awon, and Ekefa. The angry peasant farmers narrated how they lost millions of naira to the damages done to their farm produce by the herdsmen.
Spokespersons for the villagers, Messers Sunday Adeladan and Jacob Ayoola, told our correspondent that invasion of their farmlands by the Bororos started late last year, and that frantic efforts to check the criminal acts were often met with violent attacks by the cattle rearers.
“Villagers from each of the communities planted cassava, maize, and yams on about 50 acres of farmlands each, but were unable to harvest five ridges because the cattle owned by the Bororo had eaten up all the crops. Whenever we contact these Bororos on the damages and the need for compensation, they will draw out their sharp daggers and cork their guns in readiness for attacks,” they said.
They accused the police of complicity in the matter, and stressed that all peaceful means to seek amicable resolution were usually thwarted by their attitudes.
“What is worrisome and provocative is the preferential treatment accorded these Bororos. If you go to the police station or police post to lodge complaint about them, rather than act accordingly and do thorough investigation, we (farmers) the complainants will later be treated as the accused. Often times, the police will lock us in their cells, tortured us, on the orders of the Bororos,”they lamented.
The spokespersons added that the farmers are indebted to over N20 million as loans received, but could not pay back because there is no means of doing so.
They said: “Our means of livelihood have been damaged and eaten up by cows; we have no other means of sustenance. Our families are dying of hunger, nothing for us to eat let alone allowing our children to go to school. No money to buy text books, school sandals, not to even talk of their uniforms. It is as serious as that.
“Failure to comply with the ultimatum may invoke anger and violent reactions from us because an hungry person is a mad person. Authorities concerned must intervene now before it is too late.”
Similarly, Chairman, Ilora Farm Settlers Association, Alhaji Azeez Giwa, lamented that over 8,009 acres of farmlands were eaten up and destroyed by cows owned by the Bororos between 2003 and this year.
Giwa hinted that an agric loan of N7million received by the settlers from the government could not be repaid, since their means of livelihood had been eaten up. Consequently, he said N40 million is needed as compensation for the damages.
He further alleged threats to lives and properties by leader of the Bororo cattle rearers, one Alhaji Jere, who boasted to be untouchable and vowed not to relent in the destruction and damages of their farm products.
The situation is not different in Oke-Ogun area where farmers are threatening a showdown over what they referred to as “unabated criminal onslaught” being unleashed by the Bororo cattle rearers who migrated from neighbouring Niger Republic.
The latest was the destruction of farm produce valued at about N1.5 million on a 50-acre land of maize farm at Simi Akorede border town in the Saki-west Local Government Area of the state.
The food crops were not only eaten up by over 200 cattle, the cattle rearers also destroyed the left over with their cutlasses. When the owner of the crops, Mr. Akeem Oladejo, reported the matter to the police, he said no action was taken. The daredevil herdsmen, according to him, “even threatened to kill my family members if I dared attempt to prevent their cattle from subsequent damages”.
Oladejo who collected agricultural loan from the state government almost lost his life before taking his matter to the umbrella body of all farmers associations in the area for appropriate action.
The intervention of the Local Government Council, according to him, saved the situation from degenerating into bloodbath.
As a result, tension is already building in the community. What is more is the pathetic case of a middle-aged peasant farmer whose left arm was chopped off at Ipapo in the Itesiwaju Local Government Area.
The unsuspecting farmer decided to go to his farm one Sunday morning to harvest some tubers of yams for the family meal. On reaching the farm, he saw two Bororo men harvesting some tubers of yam for their cattle to feed on.
After challenging the Bororo men, the farm owner wanted to pick those tubers of yam already harvested, when one of the cattle rearers angrily drew out a sharp sword from a bag in his left arm. Sensing danger, the farmer threw away the tubers of yam and spoke with his heels.
The Bororo man still pursued him until he fell over a big stone where the cattle rearer cut off his left hand. Scream of pains attracted passersby who rushed to the scene and took the farmer to a private hospital. He was later taken to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the state capital for further treatment. The Bororo men bolted away with their cattle and could not be apprehended till today.
Going by several reports of herdsmen encroaching and grazing their cattle on farmlands and the pattern of attacks on farmer’s settlements and communities, the Fulani appear overwhelming as the aggressors.
A Fulani herdsman based in Saki, Abdullahi Sadeeq, said: “Our herd is our life because to every nomad, life is worthless without his cattle. What do you expect from us when our source of existence is threatened? The encroachment of grazing fields and routes by farmers is a call to war.”
It was gathered that following the protracted crises, the immediate past House of Assembly passed a law for the constitution of a committee in each of the 33 Local Government Areas of the state to be headed by council chairman, while the Divisional Police Officer serves as the secretary. Other members must include heads and representatives of the communities, as well as of the Bororo cattle rearers.
As a measure to address this issue, the Federal Government evolved a policy of establishing nationwide grazing reserves and routes.
Apart from existing grazing areas, the Federal Capital Territory planned three reserves to serve about 15million pastoralists in the Northern states, including the demarcation of 175,000 hectares of grazing land, building of veterinary service centres, and construction of settlements for nomads to use en route. A total of $247 million was earmarked for the project. The government also demarcated about 1,400km livestock route from Sokoto State in the Northwest to Oyo State in the Southwest; and another 2,000km route from Adamawa State in the Northeast to Calabar in the Delta region.
So far, the state of the country’s grazing reserves has remained unchanged. Former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adesina Akinwunmi once said of the current 415 grazing reserves across the country, only 141 have been gazetted with less than 20 equipped with resources for pastoralists.
Although a Presidential Committee, of which the former minister was a member during former President Good luck Jonathan administration, was set up and given specific terms of reference aimed at improving existing grazing reserves and designing a new financing regime for them, the committee remained inactive.
However, the immediate past government earmarked N10 billion for the operation of the Great Green Wall Programme (GGWP) to boost the fight against desert encroachment, a major factor that has driven pastoralists from the far North to the Northcentral region in search of grazing fields.
From 2011 to 2014, an analysis of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s capital budget showed inconsistent allocation to the development of grazing routes and reserves. In 2011, the ministry allocated N31, 404,899,584 for capital projects. It channeled N310, 489,185 for its National Grazing Reserves and Pasture Development Programme that year.
Of its N45,009,990,000 capital budget for 2012, a total N930,000,000 was allocated to the development of graving reserves, stock routes (1140km) and resting points across Nigeria. In 2013 and 2014, the ministry allocated N130,582,000 and N100,130,000 respectively from its N50,808,871,428 and N35,151,172,583 capital budgets in the year under review for countrywide grazing reserves development.
Meanwhile, a llawyer, Wale Adeoye, has suggested that cattle routes and grazing reserves should be “phased out” to emphasise ranching.
He identified cattle rustling as a disincentive to ranching and called for “better policing”.
“State governments which have large livestock population should maintain grazing reserves. The three-tiers of government should equally embark on a continuous “modernisation programme” in which nomadic herdsmen will be integrated into settled communities based on established cattle ranches with fodder development technologies, and including abattoirs, processors and other businesses along the livestock value chain.
“The integrated development programme should be undertaken and wrapped up within a period of between five and 10 years after which such settlements should have become self-sustaining with the full integration of the nomadic herdsmen community into modern Nigeria political economy.”
The lawyer also advocated that traditional institutions should be primarily responsible for the conflict resolution between the herdsmen and farmers, and also their respective associations.
“The farmers would want their crops to be protected, while the cattleman will also want their cattle to feed. So, the government should fashion out peaceful means to end the crisis.”
At the other end, the sentiments of those opposed to ceding land to cattle herdsmen are no less extreme as host communities see the idea of grazing reserves and routes as “provocative” and “selfish”. They alleged that the move is open to religious and political biases.
According to two farmers, who spoke in Saki, Mallam Adio Aleem and Mr. Adekojo Alade, the proposal for citing grazing routes and reserves across the country is selfish and provocative. “You can’t ask people in an agrarian area like Oke-ogun, for example, to cut out areas and designate them as grazing precincts just to avoid incessant conflicts with herdsmen. The proposal is simply provocative,”the averred.
No one has been able to find a middle ground between these two extremes. And so the bloodletting continues. In addition to herds destroying farms in their grazing strides, local communities are also buffeted by large-scale commercial farmers.
